1. Field
The present invention relates to communications in a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for power allocation to control channel(s) in such a communication system.
2. Background
Communication systems have been developed to allow transmission of information signals from an origination station to a physically distinct destination station. In transmitting an information signal from the origination station over a communication channel, the information signal is first converted into a form suitable for efficient transmission over the communication channel. Conversion, or modulation, of the information signal involves varying a parameter of a carrier wave in accordance with the information signal in such a way that the spectrum of the resulting modulated carrier wave is confined within the communication channel bandwidth. At the destination station, the original information signal is reconstructed from the modulated carrier wave received over the communication channel. In general, such a reconstruction is achieved by using an inverse of the modulation process employed by the origination station.
Proper power allocation to the control channels supporting the reverse link transmission is required. It is desirable that MAC channel power not be a limiting factor in supporting a large number of simultaneous reverse link users. Because MAC channel forms two bursts immediately before and immediately after a pilot burst in a given half-time-slot, only a limited amount of time is available for allocating MAC channel power to the control channels. It is desirable to ensure that limitations on the number of simultaneous supportable users are not due to the total MAC channel power but due to reverse link capacity. Additionally, a communication system may need to support both legacy access terminals, i.e., access terminals transmitting on a reverse link complying with a standard, such as the IS-856 standard, and new access terminals, i.e., access terminals transmitting on a reverse link complying with a standard that is backward compatible with IS-856. Therefore, there is a need in the art for an apparatus and method for power allocation to control channel in such a communication system.